NASA’s Mars helicopter was built to prove that flight was possible in an atmosphere one percent as thick as Earth’s, and it was expected to manage five flights over thirty days, but it flew 72 times across almost three years before a hard landing shattered its rotor blades, and it now sits where it landed, still recording the weather.
Ingenuity’s flying career ended on 18 January 2024, but the machine did not simply switch off. After its…